Internet Speed Guide For Non-PC Users

There is a new expression or definition of our ‘era’ and that is the ‘post PC’ era. Whether or not the PC is truly past its prime is a subject of much debate, but the fact of the matter is that there are now TONS of new devices that use our Internet connections. Because these devices all use a part of our Internet speed in their own ways, you should start learning just how these services work so you can determine what grade of Internet speed you need to look for.

Remember that when you shop for broadband data plans that you want to focus on the worst case scenario. The entire point of having multiple devices that can all use the Internet is that they are all capable of consuming data to produce some sort of result that users want or need. Being prepared for all devices to have their data intake going full-tilt at once is the only way to ensure that you are not going to be disappointed down the road. Without further ado, let’s investigate how non-PC or post-PC devices impact the Internet speed packages that you should be looking at.

Internet Speed Needs for Syncing

Most devices are now periodically synching in order to upload or download data of some kind. Generally speaking, synching is only as intense as it needs to be. For example, if you are synching an e-mail account every hour and are likely to receive only 3 to 5 emails a day, then you really have little to worry about. If you are synching every minute and are someone that sends hundreds of e-mails a day with dozens of other people, you might actually have to consider how much data each synch consumes because of the frequency and volume of data transferred on each synch. Not that the data is very intense in nature, but most synchs can happen in a very short period of time and that could place a great strain on an unprepared network that could impact the experience on other devices.

Uploads on WiFi Only

Due to the very nature of 3G and 4G networks, most wireless carriers are very shy about posting uploading figures. This is certainly a reasonable concern given just how spotty the performance might be. In fact, operating systems such as iOS and Android are actually designed from the ground up to provide tools and resources to programs to make them aware of when the device is on WiFi. Why? Because that is a great time to do uploads! In short, these devices may choose to upload your photos to your Flickr account or videos to your YouTube account when you are at home or the office simply because these large files may place a significant strain over a long duration on the wireless network.

Since upload speeds tend to be at a premium in all but the best of asynchronous broadband data plans, you might want to be very cautious about the Internet speeds as they relate to upstream if you do a lot of media sharing.

Content Updates

Many games, programs, and operating systems are designed to self-patch in the background when they are not being used. These patches can be a lot like any other download, and may consume a great deal of downstream performance if the WiFi connection is stronger than the broadband connection. Given the state and evolution of WiFi, this is likely to be the case on many of the newest home or office networks. This means that an update to a game console that could weigh in at 100+ megabytes may self-initiate and bog down your wireless network and your broadband connection until it is complete and you may not even realize it is happening other than through the degraded gaming performance on your smartphone.

Media Downloads

Many vendors are now offering devices that enable you to purchase programming, even seasons, as the shows become available. This means that these devices periodically check for new shows to download and then generally start the download process without any other notice. The result is that downstream data consumption can happen rather frequently and dramatically depending upon the usage and network overhead. Faster Internet speed plans are already ready to tackle a few minutes of 10+ Mbps consumption as a new hour-long TV episode or two is downloaded nearly every day.